Game based on knowledge and taste concerning pictural works, the game being implemented by computer means

ABSTRACT

A game involves obtaining a database of items, each item representing pictural work image data, together with descriptor parameters for the pictural work, with each descriptor parameter being predefined, selecting at least one criterion constituted by one of the descriptor parameters, drawing at least one item randomly from the database, and displaying the pictural work image data represented by the randomly drawn item on a player&#39;s terminal.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a game implemented by computer means andserving to bring together pictural art concepts and actions that comefrom board games.

The game also seeks to analyze the tastes of players, and on the basisof data it collects, to bring together players presenting mutualaffinities in order to enable them to share and make known rare worksand little-known artists on the basis of said criteria.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

The starting point of the invention is the observation that theinfrastructure of social networks, such as Facebook to mention the bestknown, is widely underused, and in particular:

i) it is possible to obtain an immense database of players;

ii) it is possible to host images in practically unlimited quantities;and

iii) because there exists a function for manifesting a liking,implemented by there always being a “like” button, it suffices for theuser of a social network merely to click in order to manifest aparticular interest with respect to such and such an item ofinformation, in order to share it with other members of the network.

Numerous games are also known that rely to a greater or lesser extent onchance and also, on the knowledge and learning of the player: there arepure games of chance such as “jackpot” type games or slot machine typegames, there are games that combine chance and knowledge such aswagering games, trifecta betting, etc., or indeed games that are basedessentially on learning, such as quiz type games.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One of the objects of the invention is to take advantage of the combinedfeatures of social networks and of games implemented by computer meansto make the public aware of pictural art and to enrich the knowledge ofthe public in that field.

The idea is not only to test a player's knowledge in the pictural field,but also and above all to enable players to enlarge the scope of theirknowledge in that field by helping players discover works or artiststhat are little known but that it is believed correspond to the tastesof any one player, by looking for affinities with other players who aremembers of the same social network.

In its most general aspect, the game comprises the following steps:

a) obtaining a database comprising a plurality of items, each itemcomprising: a representation of a pictural work in the form of imagedata, together with a plurality of descriptor parameters for saidpictural work, with the value of each of said descriptor parametersbeing taken from a list of predefined values;

b) selecting at least one criterion, constituted by one of thedescriptor parameters of said plurality of descriptor parameters; and

c) executing a game involving the criterion selected in step b), theexecution of the game including drawing at least one item randomly fromthe database and displaying the representation associated with therandomly-drawn item on the player's terminal.

The descriptor parameters of the pictural work may in particular betaken from the group constituted by: the name of the artist; the period;the original school; the original country; the type of scene shown; thetechnique used; the size; the museum of residence.

In a first implementation of the invention, the game executed in step c)is a game of the virtual slot machine type, comprising:

c1) in response to a command issued by the player, drawing N itemsrandomly from the database, where N≧2; and

c2) allocating a bonus to the player if there is a match for the Nrandomly-drawn items and the criterion selected in step b).

In a second implementation of the invention, the game executed in stepc) is a game of searching for the odd-one-out, comprising:

c1) randomly drawing N items from a subset of the database, where N≧2and where the subset is constituted by the items that all present thesame criterion selected in step b);

c2) randomly drawing a single item from the database not including saidsubset;

c3) displaying on the player's terminal, in random order, therepresentations associated with the N+1 items drawn at random in stepsc1) and c2);

c4) the player designating one of the representations as being therepresentation that, in the player's opinion, corresponds to the itemdrawn at random in step c2), i.e. not included in said subset; and

c5) allocating a bonus to the player in the event of a match between therepresentation specified by the player in step c4) and therepresentation of the item that was indeed drawn at random in step c2)and not included in said subset.

In a third implementation of the invention, the game executed in step c)is a game of searching for the odd-one-out, comprising:

c1) randomly drawing N items from a subset of the database, where N≧2and where the subset is constituted by the items that all present thesame criterion selected in step b);

c2) randomly drawing a single item from the database not including saidsubset;

c3) displaying on the player's terminal, in random order, therepresentations associated with the N+1 items drawn at random in stepsc1) and c2);

c4) the player designating one of the representations as being therepresentation that, in the player's opinion, corresponds to the itemdrawn at random in step c2), i.e. not included in said subset; and

c5) allocating a bonus to the player in the event of a match between therepresentation specified by the player in step c4) and therepresentation of the item that was indeed drawn at random in step c2)and not included in said subset.

In a fourth implementation of the invention, the game executed in stepc) is a quiz game comprising:

c1) drawing an item at random from the database;

c2) displaying the representation associated with the randomly-drawnitem on the player's terminal;

c3) presenting to the player said list of predefined valuescorresponding to the criterion selected in step b);

c4) the player designating one of said predefined values presented instep c3) as being the value that, in the player's opinion, correspondsto the item drawn at random in step c2); and

c5) allocating a bonus to the player in the event of a match between thepredefined value designated by the player in step c4) and the actualpredefined value of the item drawn at random in step c2).

In an advantageous and particularly characteristic aspect of theinvention, execution of the game comprises, after displaying therepresentation associated with at least one randomly-drawn item on theplayer's terminal:

i) displaying on said terminal a field for manifesting a liking of theplayer for the pictural work associated with the displayedrepresentation, by means of a binary evaluation of the type “like” or“like”/“dislike”;

ii) the player optionally inputting said manifestation of liking;

iii) the manifestation of liking as input being sent to the game site;and

iv) the manifestation of liking sent in step iii) being entered into thedatabase as an additional descriptor parameter of said pictural work.

The game executed in step c) may in particular include a prior stagecomprising:

-   -   for each player in a population of players:        -   i) displaying on the player's terminal a representation            associated with an item drawn at random from the database,            together with said field for manifestation of liking;        -   ii) the player optionally inputting said manifestation of            liking; and        -   iii) the manifestation of liking as input being sent to the            game site;    -   statistically processing the manifestations of liking as sent,        in order to classify the items of the database with a        classification ranking that is a function of the number of        players who have provided a manifestation of liking; and    -   storing said classification ranking as a descriptor parameter        for each of the classified items.

Said prior stage is preferably executed over a limited time period, inparticular a daily period.

In a fifth implementation of the invention, the game executed in step c)is a game of the wager type, comprising:

c1) the player designating at least one item of the database that theplayer considers as being the item(s) possessing the highestclassification ranking from among the items corresponding to thecriterion selected in step b); and

c2) allocating a bonus to the player in the event of a match between theitem(s) actually possessing the highest classification ranking and thedesignation made by the player in step c1).

In a particular implementation of the game:

-   -   step c1) provides for the player designating a plurality of        items, and a relative order for said items; and    -   the bonus allocated in step c2) is modulated as a function of        the match or mismatch between the relative order of the items as        designated by the player and the actual classification ranking        as determined during the prior stage.

In another particular implementation, the game comprises:

i) displaying on the player's terminal a plurality of representationsassociated with respective items of the database, each associated withsaid field for manifestation of liking;

ii) the player optionally inputting said manifestation of liking foreach displayed representation;

iii) the game site collecting the manifestations of liking as input;

iv) on the basis of the collected manifestations of liking, defining aprofile of the player's likings; and

v) the game site selecting at least one item of the database for whichthe representation has not yet been displayed on the player's terminal,the selection being made as a function of the liking profile asdetermined in step iv).

Under all circumstances, the game is advantageously implemented withinan exchange application on a social network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

There follows a more detailed description of two implementations of theinvention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the various elements of a computer network enabling theinvention to be implemented.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the display presented to a player in a gameof the virtual slot machine type.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the display presented to a player in anothergame, of the odd-one-out type.

FIG. 4 is a theoretical flow chart setting out the principal steps ofsearching for affinities between a plurality of players, with thepossibility of making them discover new pictural works that they did notknow, but that it is believed correspond to their tastes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is implemented by computer means implementing a networkorganized around a game site 10 connected by wired or wirelesstransmission means to user terminals such as a computer 12, a digitaltablet 14, or a smartphone 16. The game site is also interfaced with adatabase 18 for managing all of the data needed for executing the game.

The game may advantageously be implemented in the context of anapplication attached to a social network of the Facebook type, inparticular via a mini-application of the widget type.

The database contains a certain number of “items” or entries eachcorresponding to a pictural work (referred to more simply below as a“picture”) stored in the form of image data containing a representationof the work, accompanied by a certain amount of metadata constituted bydescriptor parameters that describe the pictural work, and inparticular:

-   -   the name of the artist who authored the work: Manet, Rembrandt,        Picasso, . . . ;    -   period: 17^(th) century, 20^(th) century, . . . ;    -   original school: Flemish, impressionist, Fauve, . . . ;    -   original country: France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, . . . ;    -   type of work: portrait, landscape, still life, nude,        mythological scene, . . . ;    -   technique used: oil on canvas or on wood, watercolor, acrylic,        etching, . . . ;    -   dimensions; and    -   museum of residence: Orsay, Tate Gallery, Offices, Prado, . . .        .

These various descriptor parameters are stored in coded form, with thevarious possible values being taken from predefined lists that can beindexed.

The database also includes information concerning the title of thepicture, which is not used as a parameter for implementing theinvention, but which may be presented to the player together with arepresentation of the picture at one moment or another in the game.

Finally, for each picture, the database stores various identifiers ofplayers who have manifested a particular liking for the work in themanner that is explained in greater detail below, in particular byclicking on a button of the “like” type of the same kind as that whichis well known and widely used in social networks for making known andsharing a particular interest for a subject displayed at a given instanton the screen of the terminal.

For a given picture, it is thus possible to identify all of the playerswho had manifested a particular partiality for the picture.

Execution of the game implies a particular criterion being selected (bythe player or the site, depending on circumstances), which criterion isone of the descriptor parameters in the above-specified list: artist,period, etc.

Execution of the game also implies a random factor, resulting from oneor more random draws of an item in the database, i.e. randomly drawingone or more pictures from amongst all of those that are listed in thedatabase.

Starting from these basic concepts, various types of game can beenvisaged.

The first game implementing the principles of the invention, thesimplest game, is a game of pure chance of the virtual slot machine or“jackpot” type.

To this end, the game site presents a display 20 on the player's screenof the kind shown in FIG. 2. The player selects a criterion (artist,period, . . . ) by clicking on one of the buttons 22 . . . 28 that arepresented by the display 20. For example the player clicks on the“artist” button.

Three panels 30, 32, 34 then start revolving about an imaginary axis 36,slowing down and stabilizing in order to present the player with threecorresponding pictures. If all three pictures were painted by the sameartist, then the player has won.

Naturally, the pictures may be presented in other ways, for example ondrums carrying images of the pictures, like a slot machine. In avariant, the buttons 22 . . . 28 may be replaced by virtual sliders ordrop-down menus, enabling the player to select a particular artist (e.g.“Picasso”) and/or a particular period (19^(th) century), etc.

The combination of two or other criteria enables the player to modulatethe potential winnings as a function of the greater or lesser scarcityof the combination: thus if the player selects “Picasso and 19^(th)century”, then the wining will be much greater than if the player hadselected “Picasso and 20^(th) century”, because of the scarcity of worksthat satisfy the first criterion.

The player's winnings may advantageously be proposed in the form ofvirtual money of the “Facebook credit” type, for example. Howeverwinnings may also be made concrete in the form of real prizes, e.g. inthe form of purchase vouchers for works of art, etc.

The winnings may also depend on the number of pictures satisfying thesame criteria on display after the draw, e.g. a result “two Picassosamong the three pictures” will attract small winnings to the player,whereas “three Picassos among the three pictures” will attract muchgreater winnings.

Very many variants and combinations may also be imagined and proposed tothe player in order to make the game more attractive.

Another essential aspect of the invention is the fact that the picturesdisplayed are all accompanied by a clickable field of the “like” buttontype, such as the buttons 40, 42, and 44 associated respectively withthe pictures 30, 32, and 34 presented to the player after the randomdraw. The player is thus invited to click on the “like” buttonassociated with a picture if the player considers that the picture is ofparticular interest given the player's own tastes.

If the player clicks on this button, the player's identity is stored inthe database in association with the corresponding picture.

This makes it possible to build up in memory a general file concerningthe tastes of the players, and the description below includes a way inwhich use can be made of that file.

A second game implementing the principles of the invention is a game ofthe “odd-on-out” type, illustrated with reference to FIG. 3.

For this purpose, the game site draws a certain number, N, of picturesrandomly from its database, e.g. N=5 pictures, in such a manner that N-1of them correspond to a given criterion that has been selected (secretlyso far as the player is concerned) by the game site, e.g. N-1=4 picturesby the same artist, while the N^(th) picture is drawn at random fromthose that do not satisfy the criterion.

For example, amongst the five pictures, four are by Renoir and the lastone, the odd-one-out, is by Degas.

Naturally, the pictures are not drawn in a manner that is completelyrandom, but rather in a manner that is weighted so that the odd-one-outcorresponds to a period or to a school that is comparable to that of thefirst artist, so as to avoid making the odd-one-out immediatelyidentifiable (e.g. one cubist amongst impressionists).

The display 48 presented to the player shows representations 50 . . . 58of five pictures as selected in this way by the game site.

The player is invited to identify the odd-one-out by clicking on one ofthe buttons 60 . . . 68, each of which is associated with the pictureunder which it is located.

As in the preceding game, each picture 50 . . . 58 is associated with a“like” button 70 . . . 78 on which the player may click in order tomanifest a particular partiality for one of the pictures that are ondisplay.

A third game implementing the concept of the invention is a game of the“quiz” type.

In such a game, a picture drawn at random is displayed on the player'sscreen, together with a list of criteria: artist, period, originalschool, . . . . The player selects a criterion, e.g. “artist”, and thegame site presents a list of artists (Picasso, Braque, Gaugin, . . . )in the form of a drop-down list from which the player selects the artistwho the player believes to be the author of the picture that has beenpresented.

This selection may be performed on one or more criteria, with winningsnaturally being modulated as a function of the difficulty in finding thecorrect response when there are multiple criteria.

A fourth game on the principles of the invention is a wager game.

The idea is then to designate one or more pictures that, in the player'sopinion, is/are the picture(s) preferred by the entire population ofplayers during a given period, e.g. over the last week.

In other words, the player designates the picture for which the greatestnumber of players have clicked on the “like” button during the pastweek, or the three pictures that satisfy this definition, possibly inorder of importance (in a game of the “trifecta” type, optionally inorder).

This wager or classification is performed on the basis of a criterionselected by the player such as artist, museum, . . . .

The wager thus relates for example to “the Renoir picture most preferredby players” or “the picture in the Prado museum most preferred byplayers”, etc.

The game relies on using statistics previously collected from thepopulation of players whose opinions have been collected in the contextof the various games in which they have participated and during whichthey have been asked on each occasion to click on a “like” buttonassociated with one of the pictures being presented to them.

Thus, at the end of a given period, e.g. at the end of a week, the gamesite can determine, for each work, the number of players who clicked onthe “like” button when that particular work was presented to them,thereby defining a hit list or classification of the pictures as afunction of the number of times players have clicked on the “like”button associated with the work.

The game consists specifically in guessing the hit list (unknown to theplayer but known to the site) for some given criterion.

In other words, the player is asked not to express the player's ownopinion (i.e. the player is not being asked at this stage to demonstrateany particular liking), but rather to indicate what, in the player'sopinion, the majority of other players prefer.

The response formulated by the player is compared with the referenceresponse, and winnings are allocated to the player if the two responsesmatch or are close.

This type of game, in which the player is asked to guess what otherplayers think, is described in detail in particular in US 2006/0281510A1 (Moreno), to which reference may be made for more ample details.

In the present circumstances, the originality lies in applying the gameto pictural works and in using the “like” function that is omnipresentin social networks for statistical purposes in order to evaluate thelikings of the population of players.

In general, a particularly advantageous application of the database madeup in the manner specified above consists in searching for affinitiesbetween players, and in using those affinities in order to enable aplayer to discover an artist or a work that is little known, but thatthere is a good chance the player will like since the player's own tasteprofile, as estimated in the manner described below, is close to theprofile of another player who has listed this artist or work amongstthat other player's favorites.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4 which sets out the main stages in analgorithm for searching for affinities between a plurality of players.

It is assumed, by way of example, that the database 18 contains theitems listed in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1 2 Renoir Umbrellas A B 9 Renoir La dame au chapeau rouge A B 23Renoir Luncheon of the boating party A B 25 Renoir Dance at le Moulin dela A B Galette 26 Renoir Girls at the piano A 29 Goya Le 3 mai B 32Poussin Arcadian Shepherds B 36 Courbet The Bather B 36 Courbet TheSleepers B C 36 Courbet Winter B F 36 Courbet The wave B D 41 VinciAnnunciation B 44 Vinci Mona Lisa A B 50 Vinci St. John the Baptist B 59Van Gogh Chambre de Vincent A B 66 Van Gogh Starry night A B 108 VanGogh Portrait of Dr. Gachet A B F 111 Van Gogh Wheatfields A C 112 VanGogh Café terrace at night A G 119 Van Gogh Sunflowers A D

The number in the first column is the unique identifier specific to agiven picture. The mentions A, B, C, . . . refer to players who havemanifested a particular liking for the corresponding picture, in thecontext of various games in which they have previously participated.This extract retains only the pictures to which at least one player hasmanifested a liking (i.e. for which at least one player has clicked atleast once on the “like” button).

The first step (block 80) consists in determining, for each of theartists P_(i), the “taste” of each player A, B, . . . , writtenG(P_(i),A), G(P_(i),B), . . . .

The “taste” G(P_(i),X) of player X is quantified by the number ofoccasions on which the player in question has manifested a liking forartist P_(i): using Table 1 as an example, we have: G(Renoir, A)=5,G(Van Gogh, A)=6, G(Renoir, B)=4, etc.

In this example it can be seen that if consideration is given to the twoplayers A and B, then they share a common taste for Renoir (four commonoccurrences) and for Van Gogh (three common occurrences), and indeed alarge number of other correspondences, not shown in this example.

However the system also easily detects a marked taste of player B forCourbet (four occurrences). In contrast, this artist is never beenspecified by A. Given the proximity of the tastes of A and B, it isprobable that, quite simply, A has never specified this artist because Ahas not heard of him.

The object of the algorithm is to detect this situation and to proposediscovering Courbet to A by asking whether A would like to exploreCourbet's works. If so, then a slideshow of works by Courbet isdisplayed and if A was completely unaware of them, that may constitute adiscovery.

For this purpose, the algorithm calculates (block 82) for each artistP_(i) the degree of correlation for each pair of players {A, B}, {A, C},{A, D} . . . {B, C}, {B, D}, etc.

This degree of correlation is given by the number of common likingsmanifested by A and B for a given artist (in the above example: 4 forRenoir, 3 for Van Gogh, etc.).

The following step (block 84) consists in detecting the pairs of players{A, B} for which the degree of correlation exceeds a first giventhreshold, i.e. for which a pronounced taste for a given artist P_(i) isobserved for both of the players A and B.

If found, a search is then made (block 86) to see whether there existsat least one artist P_(j) for which i) one of the players presents amarked taste (i.e. for which G(P_(j), B) is greater than a secondthreshold, while ii) the other player has never mentioned liking thatartist (G(P_(j), A)=0). In the example given above, this situationexists for Courbet: G(Courbet, B)=4 and G(Courbet, A)=0.

Under such circumstances, this means that the artist P_(j) is probablyunknown to one of the two players, and the site therefore suggests tothat player (block 88) to present works of that artist in order toenable the player to discover them.

1. A game implemented by computer means comprising a terminal accessibleto a player and a remote game site, the game comprising the followingsteps: a) obtaining a database comprising a plurality of items, eachitem comprising: a representation of a pictural work in the form ofimage data, together with a plurality of descriptor parameters for saidpictural work, with the value of each of said descriptor parametersbeing taken from a list of predefined values; b) selecting at least onecriterion, constituted by one of the descriptor parameters of saidplurality of descriptor parameters; and c) executing a game involvingthe criterion selected in step b), the execution of the game includingdrawing at least one item randomly from the database and displaying therepresentation associated with the randomly-drawn item on the player'sterminal.
 2. The game of claim 1, wherein the descriptor parameters ofthe pictural work of which the values are taken from a list ofpredefined values are parameters of the group constituted by: the nameof the artist; the period; the original school; the original country;the type of scene shown; the technique used; the size; the museum ofresidence.
 3. The game of claim 1, wherein the game executed in step c)is a game of the virtual slot machine type, comprising: c1) in responseto a command issued by the player, drawing N items randomly from thedatabase, where N≧2; and c2) allocating a bonus to the player if thereis a match for the N randomly-drawn items and the criterion selected instep b).
 4. The game of claim 1, wherein the game executed in step c) isa game of searching for the odd-one-out, comprising: c1) randomlydrawing N items from a subset of the database, where N≧2 and where thesubset is constituted by the items that all present the same criterionselected in step b); c2) randomly drawing a single item from thedatabase not including said subset; c3) displaying on the player'sterminal, in random order, the representations associated with the N+1items drawn at random in steps c1) and c2); c4) the player designatingone of the representations as being the representation that, in theplayer's opinion, corresponds to the item drawn at random in step c2),i.e. not included in said subset; and c5) allocating a bonus to theplayer in the event of a match between the representation specified bythe player in step c4) and the representation of the item that wasindeed drawn at random in step c2) and not included in said subset. 5.The game of claim 1, wherein the game executed in step c) is a quiz gamecomprising: c1) drawing an item at random from the database; c2)displaying the representation associated with the randomly-drawn item onthe player's terminal; c3) presenting to the player said list ofpredefined values corresponding to the criterion selected in step b);c4) the player designating one of said predefined values presented instep c3) as being the value that, in the player's opinion, correspondsto the item drawn at random in step c2); and c5) allocating a bonus tothe player in the event of a match between the predefined valuedesignated by the player in step c4) and the actual predefined value ofthe item drawn at random in step c2).
 6. The game of claim 1, whereinexecution of the game comprises, after displaying the representationassociated with at least one randomly-drawn item on the player'sterminal: i) displaying on said terminal a field for manifesting aliking of the player for the pictural work associated with the displayedrepresentation, by means of a binary evaluation of the type “like” or“like”/“dislike”; ii) the player optionally inputting said manifestationof liking; iii) the manifestation of liking as input being sent to thegame site; and iv) the manifestation of liking sent in step iii) beingentered into the database as an additional descriptor parameter of saidpictural work.
 7. The game of claim 6, wherein the game executed in stepc) includes a prior stage comprising: for each player in a population ofplayers: i) displaying on the player's terminal a representationassociated with an item drawn at random from the database, together withsaid field for manifestation of liking; ii) the player optionallyinputting said manifestation of liking; and iii) the manifestation ofliking as input being sent to the game site; statistically processingthe manifestations of liking as sent, in order to classify the items ofthe database with a classification ranking that is a function of thenumber of players who have provided a manifestation of liking; andstoring said classification ranking as a descriptor parameter for eachof the classified items.
 8. The game of claim 7, wherein said priorstage is executed over a limited time period, in particular a dailyperiod.
 9. The game of claim 7, wherein the game executed in step c) isa game of the wager type, comprising: c1) the player designating atleast one item of the database that the player considers as being theitem(s) possessing the highest classification ranking from among theitems corresponding to the criterion selected in step b); and c2)allocating a bonus to the player in the event of a match between theitem(s) actually possessing the highest classification ranking and thedesignation made by the player in step c1).
 10. The game of claim 9,wherein: step c1) provides for the player designating a plurality ofitems, and a relative order for said items; and the bonus allocated instep c2) is modulated as a function of the match or mismatch between therelative order of the items as designated by the player and the actualclassification ranking as determined during the prior stage.
 11. Thegame of claim 6, comprising: i) displaying on the player's terminal aplurality of representations associated with respective items of thedatabase, each associated with said field for manifestation of liking;ii) the player optionally inputting said manifestation of liking foreach displayed representation;